The Long Kiss Goodnight
by krissyg927
Summary: This is a fluffy thing I have been thinking of for a long time. Caryl, AU no ZA. Total fluff, no smut (I know shocking)


The Long Kiss Goodnight

 ** _A/N: Ok 2500 words, I'm getting better, lol._**

The party was in full swing and the dorm was rocking before Merle, Daryl and Rick even got there. Glenn had said that the English and Journalism majors definitely knew how to party, but they would believe it when they saw it. The music was loud though and good music, not any bubble gum stuff so there was hope.

They hauled their way across campus which was no short walk and hoped it would be worth it. It was a Saturday night and none of them had anything to do except crash a bookworm party.

Merle was a senior that year in the Environmental science/ Landscape architecture program, aka tree hugging, as people called it. He was going back home to their home town and starting a nursery and landscape business.

He was a man with a plan and the education to back it up. He intended to make a good life for himself and his little brother, who was all the family he had.

Rick and Daryl were Juniors in the same program, the three of them had big plans once they got out of school. They had ambition and had a building picked out already for the business. Merle would head back after graduation and start talking to Mr. Horvath about leasing one of his out buildings to start with. Daryl and Rick would follow a year later, they had it all planned out.

They were friends with a computer science student named Glenn Rhee and he was the reason they were at this party at a dorm clear across campus with people they knew. Glenn had his eye on a photography student he had seen in the student center named Maggie. This was her dorm and she had invited Glenn to this party.

Glenn also got half price pizza from the place he worked at a few nights a week, so he was popular with all the different cliques on campus.

He was well liked though and the pizza was just a bonus.

This dorm was full of English majors, Journalism, Fine Arts and Photography students. Merle, Rick and Daryl were in Glenn's dorm along with the other science people. They saw a few people they knew already, Rosita and Abraham were standing by the front desk and they knew them from Chemistry class. Eugene Smith and Milton Mamet sat on the couch in the great room talking to a couple of nursing students named Andrea and Amy.

The nursing students had their own dorm and Eugene and Milton were in the extreme science dorm. It was by design that the dorms were segregated by major. The college had done an experiment the first few years with the housing assignments and found that the closer in major the students were, the better they got along.

The trio walked into the lobby and showed their student ID to Sasha the desk commander for the night. Everyone knew to be nice to Sasha or she would bust your balls for everything from smoking in your room to looking at her cross-eyed.

Do not fuck with Sasha, she was a legend among the RA's.

You wanted to be on her good side, she had eyes in the back of her head and could spot you fucking up a mile away. Then she would bring Tyreese and Bob into it, her brother and boyfriend respectively. The people that lived in this dorm, Maggie included and her friends Carol and Tara knew this all too well.

There was a line of students at the desk waiting to get into the dorm. You had to get past Tyreese and Sasha before you were let in. As Daryl and Rick were getting out their ID and Merle was putting his on the desk for Sasha and Tyreese to look at one of the school Jocks walked up with his girl.

"Hold it Ed." Sasha said as he tried to lead the girl past the desk. Daryl turned around and was met with the prettiest blue eyes he had ever seen. The girl holding this jocks hand was beautiful and he had seen her around campus a time or two. "You can't cut the line Ed."

He didn't know she was into jock assholes though, that was a shame. She had a cute face with a sprinkle of freckles over her nose. Her auburn hair was held back with barrettes and it was long and curly. The kind of hair you could run your fingers through.

Her skin was light like peaches and cream and she had a pixie type quality to her.

She looked at Daryl but then lowered her eyes as if she was embarrassed to be looking at him, or maybe embarrassed because her date was a douche. It was hard to tell.

"Come on Sasha, she lives here, you know me." He said.

"Ed, rules are rules." The girl Carol said to him and Daryl watched as Ed squeezed her hand tight, like he was warning her to be quiet.

"Carol, I wasn't talking to you was I?" He said and Daryl watched as he squeezed the girls hand and she struggled not to let on to anyone that he was hurting her.

"Back of the line Peltier and wait your turn, ID out." She smiled a wicked smile at him and he turned to go to the back of the line pulling his girl along roughly.

Daryl watched her walking away, she had a nice ass, this was a pity of epic proportions because she was just his type.

"Eyes back over here brother." Merle was suddenly there in his face. "That girl is into jocks not science geeks."

"She aint to bright if she's with that guy." Daryl said.

"Probably not, didn't know you were here to chase tail anyway, what with Jenny dumping your ass." Merle said.

Daryl turned back again to look at the couple, the guy Ed was pointing a finger at his girl and almost yelling at her. Daryl knew that deal, he watched his mother get scolded plenty by his father. That guy Ed might be talking nicely to her, but his eyes told a different story.

"Yeah, I'm over that." Daryl said turning back to Merle and Rick.

"Alright then, let's go find us some drunk college girls." Merle said throwing an arm around Daryl and one around Rick as they walked into the dorm hallway.

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He just needed a break and a little fresh air. Merle and Rick had met a couple of girls and were actively pursuing them, but Daryl wasn't feeling it. He needed a smoke and some peace and quiet. He walked up the stairs that all the dorms had and pushed the door to the roof open, careful to wedge a brick in the door to keep it open.

He leaned over the side of the building and looked down, he was seven floors up but he wasn't afraid. Heights didn't bother him, elevators? That was a different story indeed. They could not pay him enough to get in an elevator.

He looked up at the sky and at the stars, Merle had taught him how to navigate by the stars when they were little. It had always been him and Merle, all their lives and he had missed him when he went away to college. He missed him so much he followed him there the next year.

He just lit his smoke and had turned around to lean against the side of the wall when he heard footsteps coming. He was out of sight from the door, and he resented someone coming up and getting into his space. It was probably Merle with some floozy trying to hook him up. He was not about that tonight, he missed Jenny, but she was gone.

Spain abroad for a semester, the funny thing was he didn't blame her at all for breaking up with him. Still he wasn't into any of Merle's pickups.

He would be polite and just go back to his dorm.

She came busting through the door and she hadn't seen the brick he put there to stop the door from shutting and locking. She had tripped over it and almost landed in his arms. He tossed his cigarette down and was so busy steadying her that by the time her got her upright, the door had closed.

"Hey, easy there Peaches." He said as he looked at the closed door. He was about to yell at her, but then he remembered how the boyfriend treated her before. He also noticed she was crying, well wasn't this just great.

She looked up at him wiping the tears away. "Peaches?"

He was embarrassed now, how would he explain that. "I call every girl Peaches." _What a big fat lie._ " If I don't know their name."

"Oh." She leaned against the wall. "I was hoping no one was up here."

"Me too." He shrugged and they were silent for a beat. "So what is it?"

"What's what?" She looked over.

"Your name?" He said and she just sniffed. "I'll go first, Daryl Dixon."

He extended his hand and she took it.

"Carol Parker."

"Well, Carol Parker, I hope you aint in a hurry." He said gesturing to the door. "You tripped over the brick I had holding the door open."

She brought her hand to her face and she looked like she might cry.

"Oh, Oh I'm so sorry." She sniffed again and Daryl just knew it was the boyfriend. This girl was apologizing for something that wasn't even her fault, just like his mother used to do.

"Its ok, you got a cell phone, mines dead, but you can just call Sasha."

"He broke it." She said quietly.

Carol looked at him in the darkness, he was a stranger and she was spilling all her dirty secrets to him. She needed to shut up, but he had the kindest eyes she had ever seen.

"I'm real sorry Carol." He said, because he had no idea what to say to that. So he took a cigarette from his pack and lit it. Then he offered the pack to her. She nodded and he lit her a cigarette and handed it to her. "Don't worry I don't have trench mouth or anything."

And she smiled the most beautiful smile, if he had to be stuck on a roof at least it was with her. She laughed then and took a drag from the cigarette.

"Ed doesn't like when I smoke, but I'm pretty sure we're broken up now." She laughed, but Daryl could tell she wanted to cry.

"If you don't mind me saying so, you're better off, he seems like a jerk."

She didn't answer him she just looked down at her cigarette. He took a drag of his and she watched as he blew smoke rings. Carol watched as his throat and Adams apple moved as he did that.

"I'll tell you my tale of woe and you can tell me yours, how's that for a deal."

Carol looked at him but didn't answer.

"Seriously, it's a good story."

"Know any other smoke tricks, that was pretty cool." She said to him.

"Ha, just one but it's really dirty, I can't do that on our first date." He said and finally she laughed for real. "It's from some Vampire movie I saw once, mayyyyybe when we get to know each other better."

She was full on laughing now. Daryl was glad he cheered her up and Carol was actually enjoying his company.

"My girlfriend for the last two years got the chance to go study in Spain for two semesters. I wanted to keep in touch, you know. But she." He took a drag of his cigarette. "Well, she just hopped right on the seven o'clock Adios Daryl flight to Madrid. Can't blame her really. Opportunity of a life time and all."

"It still sucks. I just caught him cheating and he broke my phone. I walked into Karen Johnsons room and there they were. Doing it."

"Wow, ok you got me beat." He said turning to her. "He's a jerkoff, I saw what he did in line, let him do that shit to Karen Johnson ok."

"I was going to break up with him anyway, I think he knew it and this was his way of getting the last word. He always has to, you know."

"I know the type." He turned and looked down at the courtyard and she looked over the ledge too. "Aint no one down there."

Carol looked at him sideways, he seemed like a nice person and she needed nice people in her life. He was easy on the eyes too.

"What year are you in?" She asked him as they turned back.

"Junior, Environmental Science, you?"

"Journalism and a minor in literature." She answered.

"Nice." He said. "I love Lit; it was one of my best subjects."

"Really?" She was kind of surprised, he just didn't look like one of those geeky science guys or a guy who liked the finer works in literature. He wore jeans and a shirtless flannel, she knew that was being judgmental but he just seemed like a working type man.

But she had been surprised by guys before.

God knew that was true.

"What?" He said.

She smiled to herself. "Nothing."

"I know; I look like I should be out digging a ditch somewhere." He said. "It's all good, I don't even look like I can read."

"No, I didn't mean…" She said. "I'm sorry."

"Here." He lit them each another cigarette and she took it.

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, the wind blew through the trees below them and they looked at the stars.

"I like my body when it is with your body." Daryl started and Carol's eyes grew wide as she looked at him. "It is so quite a new thing. Muscles better and nerves more. I like your body I like what it does I like its how's, I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones and the trembling firm smoothness and which I will again and again and again…."

He turned and looked at her. Her face was red and she could not believe he just recited not only her favorite poem, but one that was so romantic.

"Kiss." He whispered.

She suddenly wanted him to kiss her and he did even though he knew she just broke up with someone. He didn't care about that and she kissed him back so he was pretty sure she didn't care about that either.

 ** _A/N: I love ee cummings. It's my head cannon that Daryl likes poetry and Nirvana. If you have read my other stuff you see the other traits I always give him. Carol likes Doc Martins and Pearl Jam. Just my little things that I think about when I write. I like to give the character's personality. I use this poem a lot in my writing. It's one of my favorites._**

 **** ** _Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading._**


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